"And you say the Trafladagar is at anchor off the p'int?" added Christy, not daring to call the steamer by her true name.

"That's jest where she is; and the West Wind is. .h.i.tched to her, like a tandem team," replied Bird Riley. "Look yere, Tom Bulger, you don't make love to that bottle as though you meant business. Take another drink, and show you done got some manhood in yer."

The bottle went the rounds again, and the guests apparently took long pulls; but really they did not taste a drop of the infernal liquid.

"That's good pizen, Bird Riley; but it is not jest the stingo that I like best," said Christy, as he wiped his mouth with his sleeve in proper form, for he did not like the smell of the fluid lightning that clung to his lips.

"Whiskey suits me most; but they waste the corn makin' bread on't, and there ain't much on't left to make the staff of life. Howsomever, we don't choke to death on apple-jack, when we can get enough on't," argued Bird Riley.

"Jest now you got a tandem team hitched up out on the Trafladagar and the West Wind," continued Christy cautiously, and with apparent indifference, drawing the mate of the schooner back to the matter in which he was the most deeply interested. "What's this team hitched up that way for? Is the steamer go'n' to tow the schooner up to Mobile?"

"I reckon you're a little more'n half drunk, Tom Bulger," replied Bird Riley, with a vigorous horse laugh. "Tow the schooner up to Mobile!

Didn't I tell yer the Trafladagar's been waiting here three days for a good chance to run out?"

"You said that as true as you was born," added Graines, who thought it necessary to say something, for he had been nearly silent from the beginning.

"Sam Riley ain't quite so drunk as you be, Tom Bulger; an' he knows what's what; and thar he shows the Riley blood in his carca.s.s," chuckled the mate.

"And you said the West Wind was loaded with cotton, in the hole and on deck," added Graines, hoping to hurry the conference along a little more rapidly.

"That's jest what I said. I reckon you ain't much used to apple-jack, fur it fusticates your intelleck, and makes yer forget how old y'are.

Come, take another, jest to set your head up right," said Bird, pa.s.sing the bottle to Christy, who was doing his best to keep up the illusion by talking very thick, and swaying his body about like a drunken man.

Both the guests went through the ceremony of imbibing, which was only a ceremony to them. The fire had exhausted its supply of fuel, and it was fortunate that the darkness prevented the revellers from measuring the quant.i.ty left in the bottles as they were returned to the owners, or they might have seen that the strangers were not doing their share in consuming the poison.

"Sam Riley does honor to the blood as runs in his body, for he ain't no more drunk'n I am; an' he knows what we been talkin' about," said the mate, who seemed to be greatly amused at the supposed effect of the liquor upon Christy. "You won't know nothin' about the Trafladagar or the West Wind in half an hour from now, Tom Bulger. I reckon it don't make no difference to you about the tandem team, and to-morrer mornin'

you won't know how the team's. .h.i.tched up."

"I don't think I will," replied Christy boozily, as he rolled over on the sand, and then struggled for some time to resume his upright position, to the great amus.e.m.e.nt of Bird Riley and his companions. "But Sam Riley's got blood in him, the best blood in Alabammy, and he kin tell you all about it if yer want ter know. He kin stan' up agin a whole bottle o' apple-jack."

"I say, Cousin Bird, what's this tandem team hitched up fer?" asked Graines, permitting his superior officer to carry out the illusion upon which he had entered, in order more effectually to blind the mate, and induce him to talk with entire freedom.

"I reckon you ain't too drunk to un'erstan' what I say, Sam, as t'other feller is."

"I'm jest drunk enough to un'erstan' yer, Cousin Bird; but I cal'late I won't know much about it by to-morrer mornin'," added Graines.

"Let's take another round, Sam; but I reckon Tom Bulger's got more'n he can kerry now," continued the mate.

Bird took a long draught from the bottle, and then pa.s.sed it to his guest. Three of the four revellers had already toppled over at full length on the ground; and Christy thought he could hurry matters by doing the same thing, and he tumbled over all in a heap. Graines drank nothing himself, though he contrived to spill a quant.i.ty of the fluid on the ground, so that it might not seem too light to his only remaining wakeful companion. The last dram of Bird had been a very heavy one, and the engineer realized that he could not hold out much longer.

"What's that tandem team fer?" asked Graines, in the thickest of tones, while he swayed back and forth as Bird was doing by this time.

"The Trafladagar's gwine to tow the West Wind out; and both on 'em's sure to be tooken," stammered the mate. "We uns don't bleeve in't, and so we runned away, and left Captain Sullendine to paddle his own punt.

They get off at three in the morn in'."

Bird Riley took another drink, and then he toppled over.

CHAPTER V

IN THE VICINITY OF THE CONFEDERATE FORT

It was a favorable night for running the blockade, for the fog had settled down more densely upon the region in the vicinity of the ship channel, though it occasionally lifted, and permitted those on board of the Bellevite to see the tall tower of the Sand Island Lighthouse, which had not been illuminated for three years. The mists were generally thicker and remained longer towards daylight than at any other time, and this was the evident reason why three o'clock in the morning had been fixed upon for the departure of the Trafalgar and the West Wind in tow.

The engineer's head was as clear as it had ever been, notwithstanding the tipsy swaying and doubling-up of his body which he simulated, and he realized that his companion and himself had obtained very important revelations from the revellers. The hour at which the steamer was to leave, evidently by arrangement with the officers of the fort, was valuable knowledge, and he hoped they would be able to carry or send seasonable warning of the time to the Bellevite, for she was the only ship on the blockade that could be counted upon to overhaul the Trafalgar, if the reports of her great speed had been correctly given.

Both Christy and Graines had listened attentively to the revelations of Bird Riley; but neither of them could understand why the four men, including the mate, had deserted the West Wind only a few hours before she was to depart on her voyage to Na.s.sau, where she was believed to be bound. The reason a.s.signed by the tipsy mate was that she was going out in tow of the steamer, and was sure to be taken by the blockaders. Both of the listeners thought this fact improved her chances of getting clear of any possible pursuers.

Bird Riley had fallen back on the ground; but he still continued to talk, though his speech was very nearly incoherent. Graines was very anxious to know what time it was, for the most important part of the enterprise was to give the Bellevite timely notice of the coming of the Trafalgar. He struck a match and lighted a cigar, offering one to the mate, which he took and lighted. It was half-past twelve by his watch, as he informed Bird, though he did so more for the information of the lieutenant than of the mate.

"I reckon we are all about full enough to go to sleep, and we might as well turn in," said Graines. "But I suppose you uns mean to sleep on board of the West Wind."

"I don't reckon we'll do nothin' o' that sort," hiccoughed the mate. "We done got a p'int to kerry, and I reckon we're gwine to kerry it."

"All right," gobbled the engineer, who overdid his part, if anything.

"What's the p'int, shipmate?"

"Cap'n Sull'dine's sho't handed," replied the mate, his speech turning somersets as he labored to utter the words, for he still had a portion of his senses left.

"I see," added Graines, tumbling over, but regaining his perpendicularity with a trying effort. "Only six men left after you four done runned away."

"Six!" exclaimed Bird, raising himself up with a desperate struggle, like a wounded hawk. "No six in it; only two left. He don't, can't no how, go to sea with only two men. I'll pilot the schooner out by the Belican Channel an' Mis'sip' Sound. Cap'n Sull'dine 'n' I fit over it, an' I left, with most of the crew. Hah, ha, ha! He done got 'nuff on't!

Let's take a swigger, and then we gwine to go to sleep, like the rest on 'em."

With no little difficulty Bird Riley got the bottle to his lips, wasting no little of the liquor in the operation. He was entirely "full" then.

He handed the bottle to the engineer, and dropped over on his back, overcome by his frequent potions. Graines did not find it necessary to go through the form of putting the bottle to his lips again, and after waiting a few minutes he was satisfied that the mate was in a deep slumber, from which he was not likely to wake for several hours.

But all the information he appeared to be capable of giving had been imparted, and Graines rose to his feet as steady as he ever was in his life, having taken hardly a swallow of the repulsive poison. He walked away from the sleeping group on the ground, halting about twenty feet from them. Christy saw him, for his eyes were open all the time, and he had listened with intense interest to the conversation between the engineer and the mate of the West Wind.

The lieutenant straightened himself up and looked about him. The fire was entirely extinguished; the four men lay with their feet to the embers, and not one of them showed any signs of life. Carefully raising himself to his feet, so as not to disturb the sleeper nearest to him, he crept away to the spot where his a.s.sociate awaited him. Christy led the way in the direction of the fort, but both of them were silent till they reached the summit of the knoll which concealed the inner bay from their vision, or would have done so if the fog had not effectually veiled it from their sight.

"I suppose you heard all that was said, Mr. Pa.s.sford, after you ceased to lead the conversation," said Graines, as he glanced back at the foot of the hollow where the revel had taken place.

"Every word of it; and I could insert a good deal of what might have been read between the lines if the talk had been written out," replied the lieutenant. "As you were the cousin of the mate, he seemed to be more communicative to you than to me, and I thought it best to leave you to conduct the conversation. You did it extremely well, Charley, and there was no occasion for me to interfere. I find that you have no little skill as a detective, as well as a sailor and an engineer, and I shall make a good report of you to Captain Breaker. I could almost believe that we were boys together again as we were carrying on the farce this evening."

"Thank you, Christy--Mr. Pa.s.sford," added Graines.

"You need not stand on ship formalities while we are alone, Charley.

But we must put together the threads we have gathered this evening, and, if I mistake not, we shall make a net of them, into which the Trafalgar, or whatever her new name may be, will tumble at no very distant time. It appears that she is not to tow out the West Wind, for Captain Sullendine cannot go to sea with only two men before the mast, and no mate."

"Bird Riley played his cards very well to accomplish the purpose he had in view, which was to keep the West Wind from going to sea in tow of the steamer," replied Graines, keeping up with the lieutenant, who had taken a very rapid pace.

"I should say that the schooner would have a much better chance to get through the blockaders in tow of the Trafalgar than in going on her own hook. Bird is a big fellow in his own estimation; but it struck me that Captain Sullendine had an ignorant and self-willed fellow for a mate, and probably he took the best one he could find; for I think good seamen, outside of the Confederate navy, must be very scarce in the South."

"The fellow had a notion in his head that he could take the schooner out by Pelican Channel, and he quarrelled with the captain on this point.